Posted by Jack-NY on June 23, 2000 at 16:08:18:
Hello Rob, What are you selling these homes for? Man I would like to receive $300 a month payments on my notes, I’m lucky to hit the $200 mark, with the park rents being in the neighborhood of $200 per month. $450 would be repo material around here, you know, new cars, snowmobiles, all the other toys are more important than the lot rent and the note payments. We have a lot of deadbeats around here.
Good Luck…
Jack-NY
response to ad - Posted by Mary Ann
Posted by Mary Ann on June 19, 2000 at 05:07:00:
Hi, all. I would appreciate some advice on the newspaper ad we ran this weekend on our first mobile home. The ad:
OWNER FINANCING large mobile home in nice park. Good credit required. Reasonable down payment and payments. $8000.
I was trying to leave any numbers out so I could find out how much money potential customers really had. The park has very strict requirements. That’s why I put good credit required. The newspaper required a price. I could put payments in place of price if that would be better.
We received 4 calls Sunday (we think one was from another investor). What I thought was odd was everyone asked what the lot rent was, but nobody asked what the home payments would be. Was I over-anticipating the number of calls I thought I would receive or is my ad all wrong. I thought owner financing was the key to getting buyers excited.
What should I do now? This ad will run 8 more days. Should I put an ad in Thrifty Nickle and try to find other things also?
I really appreciate this site. I don’t post much, but I come here every day and love reading what is going on with every one. Mary Ann
Always advertise where your target market is - Posted by Dirk Roach
Posted by Dirk Roach on June 21, 2000 at 20:18:41:
I hate advertising in the “big” newspapers. Very few of my target market even looks in the big papers. They do look in the smaller “free” papers.
Just remember who your target market is.
Dirk
Re: response to ad - Posted by Jack-(NY)
Posted by Jack-(NY) on June 20, 2000 at 22:00:30:
Hello Mary Ann, next time you run the add if you do, you may want to leave out the “good credit required” This will limit your phone calls, because most people don’t have perfect credit. If you have to state a selling price always start high, because you can always go down on your price, but you can never go up in price.
Let your add run for at least two weeks, sometimes people don’t always buy the paper everyday, or they may have overlooked the add. If nothing happens after two weeks then you may want to rewrite your add.
The key is to get as many incoming calls as possible and then to screen them, if you sold the home advise your callers that these homes move very fast and that you will be glad to add them to your buyers database, as soon as we locate a home that you may be interested in I will give you a call.
The payments and lot rents should be around what the current apartment rents would be, or a rule of thumb, no more than one weeks pay.
Sit back let your adds run and return calls asap, and screen all callers. Maybe the call that you had was an investor, just ask and see, maybe you could work with this investor, they may have something you need, or maybe you have something they need, it’s great if we can all work together.
Hope this helps you…
Jack-NY
Re: response to ad - Posted by Kristine
Posted by Kristine on June 20, 2000 at 11:06:49:
Mary Ann: One more comment about the park requirements. The very strict requirements: I have found that the parks in my area say they have all kinds of requirements and run a credit report, but it turns out what they really want are a certain amount of income (3x park rent), good rental history, and no evictions. As long as there is there isn’t any major collection activity going on, they don’t really seem to care about other kinds of credit blemishes. Can you find out more about exactly what the park manager is looking for?
Sincerely–Kristine
Do you limit your lot rent + payment to one weeks pay? - Posted by RobertR CO
Posted by RobertR CO on June 21, 2000 at 18:13:48:
Jack,
So, if lot rent is $300 and the monthly Lonnie payment is $300, then their income should be $600/week??
That rules out most of my buyers.
I do like the “apartment rents” suggestion. I try for the highest payment I think they can actually afford bearing in mind that it often ends up somewhere around equivalent apartment rents.
Cordially,
Robert